LUCfest to rock Tainan as COVID-19 restrictions continue to ease

As COVID-19 restrictions continue to ease, the 2021 edition of Taiwanese showcase music festival LUCfest is set to rock Tainan with over 60 domestic and international acts from Nov. 25-28, according to the organizers.

The four-day event will see 60-80 artists and bands spread across six different stages sprinkled throughout the historic southern city, while international industry professionals, including artists and repertoire representatives, and record company executives will join panels and networking events online, said festival co-founder Hung Wei-ning (???).

Standing out from other music festivals, LUCfest is a showcase festival that aims to create a platform for information and resource exchange between Asian and Western music industries, promoting talented Taiwanese artists to the international stages, Hung said.

“To put it simply, the greatest beneficiaries at showcase music festivals are the artists themselves. Of course, the audience will also be very happy to enjoy music from a wide range of up-and-coming artists and bands,” Hung said.

The first wave of performers was announced at a press conference in Taipei on Thursday, which includes alternative hip hop rapper Murky Ghost, shoegaze dream pop singer LÜCY, and electropop outfit Go Go Machine Orchestra, to name a few.

Having lived in the Netherlands for 15 years, Hung said during that time she had organized music events and even brought Asian acts to perform in Europe.

After her return to Taiwan, she started organizing the festival because every year she sees new bands that deserve a chance to break into the international market, Hung said, adding that the process for bands to be noticed is usually slow otherwise.

“I think we [Taiwanese bands] deserve more attention and I think our music is great and we got a lot of talent. And I really want to showcase our bands to the world, so that is why I came back to Taiwan and started this,” Hung told CNA.

She feels that the independent music scene in Taiwan is enjoying its best times after having been around for over two decades, Hung said.

“We see old, young, and very skilled musicians being really active at this stage, so we are very confident that they are going to make waves on the international stage,” Hung said.

The first edition of LUCfest was held in 2017 and saw a record of over 100,000 attendees at its 2020 version, according to Hung.

However, Taiwan began imposing strict COVID-19-related rules in May, when the country saw an unprecedented surge in domestically transmitted cases of the disease. These included imposing a cap on the number of people allowed at gatherings and closing down various public venues.

As COVID-19 case numbers have continued to fall in the past few months, these rules have been gradually relaxed.

For movie theaters, performances, exhibitions and sporting events, the number of participants will no longer be capped at 80 and 300 people for indoor and outdoor activities, respectively, and seats can be filled to the maximum capacity of the venue, according to the Central Epidemic Command Center.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel